Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 11 March 2021
Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I will bow to your discipline, although I am not convinced that my speech will be as disciplined as it should be. If I do not manage to finish it, please believe me when I say that this debate will continue.
I hear people say that this has been a good debate. From where I sit, it might have been interesting, but as I did not win the argument, what is left behind is a sense of grave disappointment that I could not persuade the chamber. I do not think that the people who disagreed with me believe that women should not be protected—I do not make that case—but I think that we made the wrong decision yesterday.
As someone who has been committed to equality all my life, I regret very much that I will not be able to vote for the bill at the end of the day. I hope that nobody, in this chamber or anywhere else, takes that to mean that I want anybody in our community to face hate, disadvantage or abuse, because it is not for that reason that I cannot support the bill; it is because it does not address a fundamental problem. In real time yesterday, as we were debating the legislation, we were hearing on the news of yet another victim of male violence. In real time, women were taking to social media to describe what we do every day to keep ourselves safe, whether we are walking in a park or running or getting a bus. That is the reality of women’s lives, and that is the reality that is not being addressed in the bill.
Instead, I was subjected again today to a lecture about how I do not care enough—about how women do not care enough about people who are the victims of abuse. I am told that denying a cross-dresser the protection of the bill is unacceptable. I say this: we know—even Tim Hopkins has said—that cross-dressing is a lifestyle choice, not a matter of identity.
The problem could have been solved by including women in the legislation. I am not saying that the sex aggravator would solve everything. We are women—we know that signals are not enough—but that would have been a starting point for the work that the working group would do.
We could not even agree on a definition of what “sex” is. That matters, because the truth is that there is now a live debate about whether, in fact, there are two sexes. I respect all sides of that debate, and I have to tell John Finnie that the term “intersex” is offensive to many people in the communities who suffer from difference in sexual characteristics. They do not regard themselves as “intersex”.
The more important point is that, if people believe that there are more than two sexes and they want to change the law, then change the law. Make the arguments. In the world that I inhabit, you do not both argue a position that is at odds with the law—and, I might say, the science—and resist having that debate in public and making a decision, and, without changing the law, denounce those who state what the current law is. That is why the amendment on defining sex mattered so much. Defining that is not a matter for the working group; it is for us to come together and have that debate as a community and a society.
I recognise the deeply held views of the cabinet secretary and his experience. I do not diminish that one bit. I do not diminish anyone who suffers disadvantage because of where they find themselves. I plead with him: if it is reasonable to pause on women, why are we not pausing on these other complex areas? He cannot argue that we can wait a year for women—who we know are experiencing violence and abuse today, precisely because of their sex—but that we cannot wait for others, and that those who will not vote for the bill will be guilty of encouraging racism and disadvantage. It is not possible to argue those two things at the same time.
We are dancing on all sorts of arguments here, but what is behind this is the fact that people in our communities now face discrimination, disadvantage and abuse. Women are part of that and there are other folk who understand what that is like. The bill will fail if we do not go beyond sending signals. I regret very much that it will not even signal support for women, but if we settle for the signal we will not be doing the heavy lifting of what Government is actually about, which is educating, challenging, supporting and working with people in our communities so that they might come together, and making real in law our aspiration to a fairer Scotland.
I regret very much that at the end of the day, when I vote with my absolute conviction that the bill does not address those problems, I have no doubt that I will be characterised as someone full of hate. Please believe me that the women who want the legislation to be changed—those who have highlighted their concerns—aspire to the same as those who will vote for it. We have to wrestle with the fact that, even as a signal, the legislation does not address even the lived experience of the women in this place.
I am sorry for and regret being so forthright, but it is not good enough to tell me that I spoke well. Women have spoken well through the generations and they are speaking now. They are telling us what their lived experience is and Parliament needs to tackle these problems. It needs to tackle the argument that is at dispute and highly contentious, not hide it away and denounce those who are not prepared to go along with that.
I respect everyone in the chamber. I trust that they will respect the women in the chamber and beyond who continue to say that the bill is not good enough. We need to think again, get our heads around the complexities and make legislation that genuinely protects all of those who experience hatred, disadvantage and abuse simply for being who they are.